well if you charged me 5$ to walk in to your store i would keep on going
i always patronise small business if possible
Quality is better @ mom and pop stores
i do not mind paying extra per pound for a better product

Small business owner here. Her tactics are horrible and that is not the way you get customers into your store. Small businesses must and have to go the extra mile. If you don't, you will fail.

That's not what I was saying though. My first post said I disagreed with her position. The post you quoted was about how small business in this country cannot compete price wise with the big companies that Ozgeek was talking about.

I agree that the move she has made will be detrimental to her business. I was answering the people that were saying she should price match with them. That is an impossibility in this country.

I am really against this. I would never buy from a store like that. There are times that I go into the store so I can browse and see what they have and see if it fits me and my lifestyle. If I can't browse without buying, they lost any business that I would do with them and I would go somewhere else.

They are just really hurting themselves and they will lose money.

The right answers are....

1) Sell something people want
2) Sell it at a decent price that people can afford
3) Try to be different in the market that you are in that gives you an edge to the customers you want to reach

Treating potential customers like criminals is a bad idea and only helps your competition.

Also, I find it hard to understand how on Earth some people on here are okay with this. If you have half a brain you will stay away from a store like this and they will lose money.

Finding other ways to make a sale. For example sell online and reduce your overhead. Find a new niche group that you can market to.Find other additions to the business that make sense in the area of business that she is in.

Americans on here talking about small business dont seem to understand that it is totally impossible for Australian small businesses to compete on prices with the Woolworths and Westfarmers groups that own just about everything here. In a land of often too much legislation, Australia dosent seem to have many that relate to the control of market ownership allowance and furthermore monopolies. Furthermore, in attempts to level the playing field of the seeming divide between rich and poor the current government has created many new taxes and legislation in extremely rapid succession that has actually impacted small business moreso than the larger companies. Larger companies have existing revenues and expenditure to hire top accountants and tax attorneys to mitigate the impacts of the new legislation's. Small business cannot afford such luxuries. Come and visit the great expensive land of ours if you do not believe it

You know what this reminds me of was an experience my aunty had when she was at a business function. My aunty is a share broker and over heard this lady boast about how she could buy/sell shares at home without having to pay a huge fee - after making such a statement she then came over to my aunty ask questions about what she thought of xyz company. My aunty responded, "oh, I thought what I provided was a waste of time" and she went back to talking to a colleague. Sorry but in this world you can't sit around demanding that the world give you free advice - that advice, that knowledge is acquired and at the very least if you're going to ask for that advice then the person providing it should be compensated.

Someone said earlier on "huehuehue I can get my cereal cheaper" - of course because it isn't gluten free. To the surprise of some here there are people who do have a genuine health problem and actually need special food - yes there are some who have jumped on the gluten free diet like some sort of craze but there are those who have gone out, actually been tested by a doctor and confirmed to have the condition. As for specialty stores like hers - end of the day the supermarkets pretty much have it taken care of so maybe the best course of action is for her to find another business to get into.

Someone said earlier on "huehuehue I can get my cereal cheaper" - of course because it isn't gluten free.

A lot of cereal is gluten free since it's not made with any wheat products, e.g. Corn Chex. I haven't come across a cereal that is more expensive because it is gluten free. They're all within the same price range--a trivial price range.

If that's the way you want to run your business than fine, However I shouldn't be expected to pay a fee to "window shop" if none of your products meet my requirements. I suppose another way around this is to than buy the cheapest item possible to get most of your $5 back...